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32 .\" From: @(#)whois.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
40 .Nd "Internet domain name and network number directory service"
43 .Op Fl aAbdfgiIklmQrR6
44 .Op Fl c Ar country-code | Fl h Ar host
50 utility looks up records in the databases maintained by several
51 Network Information Centers
54 The options are as follows:
55 .Bl -tag -width indent
57 Use the American Registry for Internet Numbers
60 It contains network numbers used in those parts of the world covered neither by
61 .Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
65 (Hint: All point of contact handles in the
67 whois database end with
71 Use the Asia/Pacific Network Information Center
74 It contains network numbers used in East Asia, Australia,
75 New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
77 Use the Network Abuse Clearinghouse database.
78 It contains addresses to which network abuse should be reported,
79 indexed by domain name.
80 .It Fl c Ar country-code
81 This is the equivalent of using the
83 option with an argument of
84 .Qq Ar country-code Ns Li .whois-servers.net .
86 Use the US Department of Defense
88 It contains points of contact for subdomains of
91 Use the African Network Information Centre
93 database. It contains network numbers used in Africa and the islands of the
96 Use the US non-military federal government database, which contains points of
97 contact for subdomains of
100 Use the specified host instead of the default variant.
101 Either a host name or an IP address may be specified.
105 constructs the name of a whois server to use from the top-level domain
107 of the supplied (single) argument, and appending
108 .Qq Li .whois-servers.net .
109 This effectively allows a suitable whois server to be selected
110 automatically for a large number of
113 In the event that an IP
114 address is specified, the whois server will default to the American
115 Registry for Internet Numbers
120 .Tn APNIC , AfriNIC , LACNIC ,
123 that server will be queried also, provided that the
125 option is not specified.
127 If the query is not a domain name or IP address,
130 .Pa whois.crsnic.net .
132 Use the Network Solutions Registry for Internet Numbers
133 .Pq Pa whois.networksolutions.com
135 It contains network numbers and domain contact information for most of
136 .Pa .COM , .NET , .ORG
142 The registration of these domains is now done by a number of
143 independent and competing registrars and this database holds no information
144 on the domains registered by organizations other than Network Solutions, Inc.
148 .Pq Pa whois.internic.net
149 is no longer handled by Network Solutions, Inc.
151 .Pa http://www.internic.net/ .
153 (Hint: Contact information, identified by the term
155 can be looked up by prefixing
159 handle in the query.)
161 Use the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
164 It contains network information for top-level domains.
166 Use the National Internet Development Agency of Korea's
169 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
172 Use the Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
175 It contains network numbers used in much of Latin America and the
178 Use the Route Arbiter Database
181 It contains route policy specifications for a large
182 number of operators' networks.
184 Connect to the whois server on
186 If this option is not specified,
193 will not attempt to lookup the name in the authoritative whois
194 server (if one is listed).
195 This option has no effect when combined with any other options.
197 Use the R\(aaeseaux IP Europ\(aaeens
200 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
203 Use the Russia Network Information Center
206 It contains network numbers and domain contact information
209 This option is deprecated; use the
211 option with an argument of
215 Use the IPv6 Resource Center
218 It contains network names and addresses for the IPv6 network.
221 The operands specified to
223 are treated independently and may be used
224 as queries on different whois servers.
226 Most types of data, such as domain names and
228 addresses, can be used as arguments to
230 without any options, and
232 will choose the correct whois server to query.
233 Some exceptions, where
235 will not be able to handle data correctly, are detailed below.
237 To obtain contact information about an
238 administrator located in the Russian
244 option as shown in the following example, where
246 is substituted with the actual contact identifier.
248 .Dl "whois -c RU CONTACT-ID"
250 (Note: This example is specific to the
255 can be queried by using a similar syntax.)
257 The following example demonstrates how to obtain information about an
259 address or hostname using the
261 option, which directs the query to
264 .Dl "whois -6 IPv6-IP-Address"
266 The following example demonstrates how to query
267 a whois server using a non-standard port, where
269 is the query to be sent to
270 .Dq Li whois.example.com
273 (written numerically as 4321).
275 .Dl "whois -h whois.example.com -p rwhois query-data"